When you last read about our road-gripping second-generation Camaro project, Bruce Monroe and his crew at A&E Motorsports out of Santa Fe Springs, California, were situating some of the final components we needed to fire it up, including an American Autowire kit and Auto Meter’s Digital Street Dash. In this installment, we show off a couple of Lokar’s products, including their Competition Series throttle pedal (PN XBAG-6149), which we found was a great upgrade for those with flimsy or missing stock pedals. Ever try to drive an old car with a loose pedal or missing pad? Take it from us; it’s incredibly annoying. After we put our heavy sole on Lokar’s grippy pedal and felt how smoothly it operates while goosing the throttle, we wondered why we are using a sloppy stock pedal on our other projects.
Lokar’s Competitor Series Throttle Assemblies are not just replacements; they can also enhance your driving experience. They are designed with an internal spanner nut that allows the user to control his ideal pedal tension, as this versatile feature reduces excess “slop” in the throttle pedal. A thick, aluminum mounting base is easily bolted to the firewall, and each Competition Series pedal is available in either a centered or an offset version, which raises or lowers the center of the throttle assembly a full inch. Other features include a large diameter, 48-tooth fine-spline steel insert that keeps the pedal arms locked in place, while also allowing you to clock the arms at any position. These splined arms can also be swapped right or left to finely tune the position of the pedal pad. A spring-loaded throttle pad, Delrin bushings, and black anodized selections are other pros to upgrading your pedals with Lokar.
We also opted for Lokar’s Hi-Tech Throttle Cable in black stainless steel braid to prod our nasty small-block. Although all these black components are tough to photograph, the way they look on the car is worth it. Made with an extruded liner for the extended life of the cable, these heavy-duty cables are equipped with aluminum fittings and aluminum ferrules to eliminate fraying. These cables are available in 24- or 36-inch lengths with stainless inner wire that the user can cut to fit, however custom lengths are available upon request. Besides the cable, we also opted for Lokar’s Black Stainless Carb Bracket and Black Stainless Springs (PN XSRK-4000), which holds the Hi-Tech cable while providing a dual spring setup.
With the final components bolted into place, plans are being made to have the F73 shipped to Precision Restorations in St. Louis for a cool coat of Prowler Orange (possibly with stripes to show off the carbon-fiber hood and decklid from Anvil Auto). We’ll keep you posted as F73 gets closer to carving its way around the track and streets.
Here’s a shot of our F73 after getting wired up at A&E Motorsports. It doesn’t have mufflers yet, so the 470hp small-block’s bark is way meaner than its bite, but we have a supercharged LS3 planned for it. As you can see, Precision Restorations will need to fit on the front fascia, grille, and bumpers before spraying it.
The stock gas pedal, although in good shape, was not lining up properly so we opted for Lokar’s Competition Series throttle pedal to remedy the issue.
Using Lokar’s noir Carb Bracket and Stainless Spring kit (PN XSRK-4000), Brandon Matarese at A&E bolted the bracket to our carburetor stud, making sure to use the adjusters to align the cable.
For safety reasons, all carburetors should have a dual spring setup, and Lokar makes that an easy upgrade with their kit. Using a simple design that positions the springs out of the way, we were impressed how easy this was to install.
Hooking up the cable is a matter of pushing the end on a ball-headed fastener that gets screwed to your carb’s throttle blade. After playing with your throttle positioning, it’s a good idea to check for wide-open throttle.
In order to achieve true wide-open throttle, you can simply adjust the Hi-Tech throttle cable from Lokar using two open-ended 9/16 wrenches.
Here’s the completed shot of Lokar’s XSRK-40000 kit under the hood of F73.
Although a stainless finish is available, we opted for Lokar’s Black line of products, including the stainless black cable housing.
Another option for mounting your go-cable is Holley’s billet aluminum throttle cable bracket, which is another high-quality piece. On this setup, the dual springs as well as the cable mount are adjustable.
Instead of the stock rubber pads, we went with Lokar’s Competitor Pedal Pad kit, which simply bolts to the stock pedals.
The Lokar Competition Series pedals are mounted to the firewall, instead of the floor like most Chevy models. This piece is actually built with a tensioner that allows you to adjust any play that you may feel when depressing the pad.